Desmond Morton (historian)
Encyclopedia
Desmond Dillon Paul Morton, OC
, FRSC
, CD
(born 1937) is a Canadian
historian
who specializes in the history of the Canadian military, as well as the history of Canadian political and industrial relations.
Born in Calgary
, Alberta
, Morton is the son of a Brigadier General, and the grandson of General Sir William Dillon Otter
. He is a graduate of the Collège militaire royal de St-Jean, the Royal Military College of Canada
, a Rhodes Scholar, the University of Oxford
(where he received his PhD), and the London School of Economics
. He spent ten years in the Canadian Army (1954-1964 retiring as a Captain) prior to beginning his teaching career. He was named Honorary Colonel of 8 Wing of the Canadian Air Force at CFB Trenton
in 2002. He received the Canadian Forces Decoration
in 2004 for 10 years total military service.
Morton is the Hiram Mills professor of History at McGill University
, as well as the past director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada, in Montreal
, Quebec
. As of fall 2011, he continues to serve at McGill as a professor emeritus. Prior to that, he was Principal of Erindale College
, University of Toronto
, from 1986 to 1994.
Before beginning his teaching career, Morton served as an advisor to Tommy Douglas
of the New Democratic Party
. In the 1980s he informally advised Brian Mulroney
of the Progressive Conservatives. From 1964 to 1966, he served as assistant secretary of the Ontario New Democratic Party
. After the success of the famous 1964 NDP Riverdale by-election
, Morton wrote and published The Riverdale Story, which detailed how the party organizing and canvassing which changed the way campaigns in Canada are run. In the 1970s he worked with David Lewis
, Stephen Lewis
and other party leaders to opposed The Waffle
, a left wing faction within the NDP.
Morton received his doctorate from the University of London
. He is the author of over thirty-five books on Canada, including the popular A Short History of Canada ISBN 0-7710-6509-4.
In 1996, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada
. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
since 1985.
He is also known for jokingly defining a BA
as "it means that you can read and write in a professional manner".
While Morton is widely regarded as an expert in all areas of Canadian history, he specializes in Canadian military and industrial history as well as nationalisms
in Canada. He is noted as one of the few remaining historians who personally interviewed and studied veterans from the militia
sent to the North-West Rebellion
of 1885.
In 2008, however, he published the following remarks: "Canadians are now being told by their government and its friends that we achieved the same joyous state on a snowy April 9, 1917, when four Canadian divisions advanced to capture Vimy Ridge at a cost of about 10,000 dead and wounded – enough to bring on a nationally divisive crisis as the English-Canadian majority tried to conscript the French-speaking minority for a war Quebec
had never embraced. This may be Stephen Harper
's version of history, learned in the schools of Ontario
. But that would be selling ourselves short." Morton states that the abandonment of Canada by British
troops in 1871 was a much more important event in the emergence of Canada as a separate nationality
.
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
, FRSC
Royal Society of Canada
The Royal Society of Canada , may also operate under the more descriptive name RSC: The Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada , is the oldest association of scientists and scholars in Canada...
, CD
Canadian Forces Decoration
The Canadian Forces Decoration is a Canadian award bestowed upon members of the Canadian Forces who have completed twelve years of military service, with certain conditions. By convention, it is also given to the Governor General of Canada upon his or her appointment as viceroy, which includes the...
(born 1937) is a Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
who specializes in the history of the Canadian military, as well as the history of Canadian political and industrial relations.
Born in Calgary
Calgary
Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...
, Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...
, Morton is the son of a Brigadier General, and the grandson of General Sir William Dillon Otter
William Dillon Otter
General Sir William Dillon Otter KCB, CVO, VD was a professional Canadian soldier who became the first Canadian-born Chief of the General Staff, the head of the Canadian Army.-Military career:...
. He is a graduate of the Collège militaire royal de St-Jean, the Royal Military College of Canada
Royal Military College of Canada
The Royal Military College of Canada, RMC, or RMCC , is the military academy of the Canadian Forces, and is a degree-granting university. RMC was established in 1876. RMC is the only federal institution in Canada with degree granting powers...
, a Rhodes Scholar, the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
(where he received his PhD), and the London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...
. He spent ten years in the Canadian Army (1954-1964 retiring as a Captain) prior to beginning his teaching career. He was named Honorary Colonel of 8 Wing of the Canadian Air Force at CFB Trenton
CFB Trenton
Canadian Forces Base Trenton , is a Canadian Forces base located northeast of Trenton, Ontario. It is operated as an air force base by the Royal Canadian Air Force and is the hub for air transport operations in Canada and abroad...
in 2002. He received the Canadian Forces Decoration
Canadian Forces Decoration
The Canadian Forces Decoration is a Canadian award bestowed upon members of the Canadian Forces who have completed twelve years of military service, with certain conditions. By convention, it is also given to the Governor General of Canada upon his or her appointment as viceroy, which includes the...
in 2004 for 10 years total military service.
Morton is the Hiram Mills professor of History at McGill University
McGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...
, as well as the past director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada, in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
. As of fall 2011, he continues to serve at McGill as a professor emeritus. Prior to that, he was Principal of Erindale College
Erindale College
Erindale College may refer to:* Erindale College, a secondary college located in Wanniassa, Australian Capital Territory* Erindale College, an alternate name for the University of Toronto Mississauga...
, University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
, from 1986 to 1994.
Before beginning his teaching career, Morton served as an advisor to Tommy Douglas
Tommy Douglas
Thomas Clement "Tommy" Douglas, was a Scottish-born Baptist minister who became a prominent Canadian social democratic politician...
of the New Democratic Party
New Democratic Party
The New Democratic Party , commonly referred to as the NDP, is a federal social-democratic political party in Canada. The interim leader of the NDP is Nycole Turmel who was appointed to the position due to the illness of Jack Layton, who died on August 22, 2011. The provincial wings of the NDP in...
. In the 1980s he informally advised Brian Mulroney
Brian Mulroney
Martin Brian Mulroney, was the 18th Prime Minister of Canada from September 17, 1984, to June 25, 1993 and was leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1983 to 1993. His tenure as Prime Minister was marked by the introduction of major economic reforms, such as the Canada-U.S...
of the Progressive Conservatives. From 1964 to 1966, he served as assistant secretary of the Ontario New Democratic Party
Ontario New Democratic Party
The Ontario New Democratic Party or , formally known as New Democratic Party of Ontario, is a social democratic political party in Ontario, Canada. It is a provincial section of the federal New Democratic Party. It was formed in October 1961, a few months after the federal party. The ONDP had its...
. After the success of the famous 1964 NDP Riverdale by-election
By-election
A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....
, Morton wrote and published The Riverdale Story, which detailed how the party organizing and canvassing which changed the way campaigns in Canada are run. In the 1970s he worked with David Lewis
David Lewis (politician)
David Lewis, CC was a Russian-born Canadian labour lawyer and social democratic politician. He was national secretary of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation from 1936 to 1950, and one of the key architects of the New Democratic Party in 1961...
, Stephen Lewis
Stephen Lewis
Stephen Henry Lewis, is a Canadian politician, broadcaster and diplomat. He was the leader of the social democratic Ontario New Democratic Party for most of the 1970s. During many of the those years as leader, his father David Lewis was simultaneously the leader of the Federal New Democratic Party...
and other party leaders to opposed The Waffle
The Waffle
The Waffle was a radical wing of Canada's New Democratic Party in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It later transformed into an independent political party, with little electoral success before it permanently disbanded in the mid-1970s...
, a left wing faction within the NDP.
Morton received his doctorate from the University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
. He is the author of over thirty-five books on Canada, including the popular A Short History of Canada ISBN 0-7710-6509-4.
In 1996, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
Royal Society of Canada
The Royal Society of Canada , may also operate under the more descriptive name RSC: The Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada , is the oldest association of scientists and scholars in Canada...
since 1985.
He is also known for jokingly defining a BA
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
as "it means that you can read and write in a professional manner".
While Morton is widely regarded as an expert in all areas of Canadian history, he specializes in Canadian military and industrial history as well as nationalisms
Canadian nationalism
Canadian nationalism is a term which has been applied to ideologies of several different types which highlight and promote specifically Canadian interests over those of other countries, notably the United States...
in Canada. He is noted as one of the few remaining historians who personally interviewed and studied veterans from the militia
Militia
The term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...
sent to the North-West Rebellion
North-West Rebellion
The North-West Rebellion of 1885 was a brief and unsuccessful uprising by the Métis people of the District of Saskatchewan under Louis Riel against the Dominion of Canada...
of 1885.
Views on Canadians' social memory of the First World War
Morton has addressed the issue of whether the First World War was indeed a war of independence of Canada. He once wrote: "For Canadians, Vimy Ridge was a nation building experience. For some, then and later, it symbolized the fact that the Great War was also Canada's war of independence...."In 2008, however, he published the following remarks: "Canadians are now being told by their government and its friends that we achieved the same joyous state on a snowy April 9, 1917, when four Canadian divisions advanced to capture Vimy Ridge at a cost of about 10,000 dead and wounded – enough to bring on a nationally divisive crisis as the English-Canadian majority tried to conscript the French-speaking minority for a war Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
had never embraced. This may be Stephen Harper
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...
's version of history, learned in the schools of Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
. But that would be selling ourselves short." Morton states that the abandonment of Canada by British
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
troops in 1871 was a much more important event in the emergence of Canada as a separate nationality
Nationality
Nationality is membership of a nation or sovereign state, usually determined by their citizenship, but sometimes by ethnicity or place of residence, or based on their sense of national identity....
.
Published works
- Ministers and Generals: Politics and the Canadian Militia, 1868–1904 ISBN 0-8020-5228-2, (1970)
- The Last War Drum:The North West Campaign of 1885 (1972)
- Mayor Howland: The Citizens' Candidate (1973)
- The Canadian General Sir William Otter (1974)
- NDP The Dream of Power (1974)
- The Queen Versus Louis Riel ISBN 0-8020-6232-6, (1974)
- Critical Years 1857–1873 (1977)
- Rebellions in Canada ISBN 0-531-00449-X (1980)
- The Supreme Penalty: Canadian Deaths by Firing Squad in the First World War (1980)
- Canada and War: A Military and Political History ISBN 0-409-85240-6, (1981)
- Labour in Canada (1982)
- A Peculiar Kind of Politics: Canada's Overseas Ministry in the First World War ISBN 0-8020-5586-9, (1982)
- Years of Conflict: 1911–1921 (1983)
- New France and War ISBN 0-531-04804-7, (1984)
- Working People ISBN 0-88879-040-6, (1980) (rev. 1984, 1990, 2003)
- The New Democrats 1961–1986: The Politics of Change (1986)
- Winning the Second Battle: Canadian Veterans and the Return to Civilian Life, 1915–30 ISBN 0-8020-6634-8, (1987) (with Glenn T. Wright)
- Towards Tomorrow: Canada in a Changing World History ISBN 0-7747-1281-3, (1988)
- Marching to Armageddon: Canadians and the Great War 1914–1919 ISBN 0-88619-211-0, (1989) (2nd Ed 1992) (With J. L. Granatstein)
- A Military History of Canada ISBN 0-7710-6515-9, (1992) (2nd Ed. 1999)
- Morgentaler vs Borowski ISBN 0-7710-6513-2, (1992)
- Silent Battle: Canadian Prisoners of War in Germany, 1914–1919 ISBN 1-895555-17-5, (1992)
- When Your Number's Up: The Canadian Soldier in the First World War ISBN 0-394-22388-8, (1994)
- Shaping a Nation: A Short History of Canada's Constitution ISBN 1-895642-10-8, (1996)
- The United Nations: Its History and the Canadians Who Shaped It ISBN 1-55074-222-1, (1995)
- Our Canada: The Heritage of Her People 0-8886-6643-8, (1996)
- Victory 1945: Canadians from War to Peace ISBN 0-00-255069-5, (1996) (with J. L. Granatstein)
- Wheels:The Car in Canada ISBN 1-895642-03-5, (1998)
- Who Speaks for Canada? ISBN 0-7710-6502-7, (1998) (2nd Ed. 2001) (with Morton Weinfeld)
- Working People: An Illustrated History of the Canadian Labour Movement (1998)
- Canada: A Millennium Portrait ISBN 0-88866-647-0, (1999)
- Understanding Canadian Defence (2000)
- A Short History of Canada ISBN 0-7710-6509-4,(2001)
- Bloody Victory : Canadians And The D-Day Campaign 1944 ISBN 1-895555-56-6, (2002)
- They Were So Young: Montrealers Remember WWII (2002)
- Canada and the Two World Wars ISBN 1-55263-509-0, (2003) (with J.L. Granatstein)
- Understanding Canadian Defence (2003)
- Fight or Pay ISBN 0-7748-1108-0, (2004)
- The Mystery of Frankenberg's Canadian Airman ISBN 1-55028-884-9, (2005)
- Billet Pour le Front (Ticket for the Front) ISBN 2-922865-40-1, (2005) (French)